Orange Sets €600M AI Value Target as It Names Group Chief AI Officer

Orange, one of Europe's largest telecom groups, has appointed a dedicated Group Chief AI Officer as it moves AI from a research priority into a core driver of business transformation—with a stated target of generating more than €600 million in value from AI by 2028.

The Appointment

Usman Javaid has been named Orange's Group Chief AI Officer, effective 1 September 2026. He will report directly to Bruno Zerbib, Orange's Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, and will be responsible for scaling AI initiatives across the Group's networks, customer relations, operations, and business services.

Javaid brings more than twenty years of experience in technology, innovation, and business transformation. Most recently, he served as Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Orange Business from April 2023, leading strategy, product development, and data and AI transformation. Before that, he held leadership roles at Amazon Web Services covering cloud services across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and earlier held international positions at Vodafone spanning 4G rollout, IoT, cloud, and network strategy.

Strategic Context

The appointment reflects Orange's Trust the Future strategy, presented in February 2026, which designates AI as a major driver of value creation. Beyond revenue generation, Orange's AI agenda targets operational excellence, improved customer experience, and the embedding of agentic AI into the company's core operations. Javaid succeeds Steve Jarrett, who structured the Group's early AI foundations.

Key Takeaways

• €600M+ in AI value targeted by 2028. Orange has set a specific, measurable AI value-creation goal tied to its Trust the Future strategy.
• Agentic AI is a stated priority. The brief explicitly calls for embedding agentic AI into networks and customer operations—not just deploying AI tools at the margins.
• Group-level AI leadership is becoming standard. The dedicated Group CAIO role signals that AI governance is being elevated to the C-suite at major enterprises.

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